Burnout
by ParamoreXO
Summary: It was inevitable that they find out. If she would have known that the truth was to be discovered in such a manner, however, she wouldn't have hesitated to admit that she isn't Green Arrow's niece.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: It was inevitable that they find out. If she would have known that the truth was to be discovered in such a manner, however, she wouldn't have hesitated to admit that she isn't Green Arrow's niece.**

**Episode: Set after #18, "Secrets"**

* * *

><p>November 06, 23:07 CST<p>

* * *

><p>"If I didn't need this arrow, it'd be lodged into your head by now."<p>

Chuckling at the archer's threat, Kid Flash veered to the side to dodge a blast from their opponent's ray gun. With Artemis in his arms, travelling together at an astonishing speed, the extra weight that factored into the force of his sharp swerve nearly caused him to topple over her. He flashed a cheeky grin to cover up any faltering emotion due to his near mess up.

He knew her eyes were no longer on him, however. Notching an arrow and cocking her bow, she squeezed one eye shut and took lethal aim at their intended target. Her shift in position caused him to involuntarily wrap an arm more securely around her exposed, solid midriff. Firmly supported and hurtling towards the face of danger at turbo speed, she unleashed the strings that struck a chord of destruction. Her well directed shot embedded itself in the barrel of their rival's ray gun, causing the weapon to combust in his hand.

Zipping past the enemy, the pair only caught a glimpse of the man slumping to the ground in agony, clawing at his flaming arm. Candidly impressed by the archer's handiwork, Wally let out a low whistle. "Hey, Beautiful, dig my brains out anytime."

Reducing to a safe stop, he nearly lost his grip on her when she thumped the back of his head. "Or I could just knock 'em out."

"Hey you two! Great teamwork!" Descending from her position for airborne attacks, M'Gann's dark cape billowed around the length of her lean frame as dust kicked up to shroud her shoes.

"Yeah, well—" the speedster smirked up into Artemis' sour, narrow eyed pout. In one fluid motion, he uncurled his arm from under her legs without warning and, while she yelped in her startled state, snaked it around the dip of her waist as her feet shot out beneath her. The adrenaline triggered by pure reaction heightened her senses. After a few moments, the initial shock petered out and she grew painfully aware of how _surrounded _she was by him. His arm that kept her flush against him and that faint, musky scent tingeing the air… "—I have ways to get her to cooperate."

Snapping out of her reverie by M'Gann's abrupt fit of giggles, she shoved Wally away and stalked off towards the rest of her teammates. With the criminal in cuffs, the Justice League was just about to debrief the heroic novice's. The speedster might have been able to sidetrack her, but when it came to the League, she couldn't afford to damage the elder heroes' perceptions of her.

* * *

><p>Mount Justice<p>

November 07, 02:11 EDT

* * *

><p>Answered by the metallic hiss preceding the opening of the Med Lab door, Red Arrow scanned the sterile proximity through masked eyes. Spotting the boy whom he had been hunting down as of the past fifteen minutes, the lone hero noticed that he was bent over frothing beakers. "Late night?"<p>

"Yeah," Wally responded with a slight wave of the hand, never turning away from the foaming concoctions. "Ol' Batty put me in charge of identifying the chemical compounds used in some nut job's ray gun. Why are _you_ here?"

A faint grin tugged at the corners of the archer's lips. "I got tangled up with Cheshire and her blood ended up on one of my arrows." Leaning against a nearby observation counter, he crossed his arms, completely at ease. "She escaped, but I got the arrow back."

Pried away from his line of duty by his friend's latest development, Wally mimicked his friend's slouched position. "So, what? You want me to take a blood sample and trace her roots?"

The satisfaction couldn't be voided from Roy's voice. "Exactly. If you can cross-match the genetic materials with everything on the main database, maybe we could find out more about why or how Cheshire's connected to Sportsmaster."

Shrugging, the speedster burrowed his hands deep into his denim pockets. "Eh, all bad guys are the same to me. Easily put, they're lowlife's who leave heroes like us with a mess to clean up."

"Yeah, well, clean _this_ up—" Roy tossed the bloodied spear towards him, leaving Wally scrambling his hands out of his pockets to catch it. "—by tomorrow. I'm getting sick of cleaning up after that cat."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Not the end! Basically, this is my version on how the team comes to discover Artemis' true identity. Things will definitely progress in later chapters. This is just the beginning.**

…**Review?**

**Oh, and also, I know nothing about science. So please, bear with me here.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: any numbers bolded in parenthesis like ( 1 ) serves as a footnote. Also, I caution you of a spoiler for Justice League Unlimited. If you've seen the series, you'll catch my drift. If not, go watch it. It's a freakin' fantastic show.**

* * *

><p>Mount Justice<p>

November 07, 06:56 EDT

* * *

><p>Knuckles grounding into the sleep filled corners of his eyes, Wally emerged from the Med Lab and dragged his feet towards the familiar path of the kitchen. The ferocious roar in his stomach amplified the need for food, causing his mouth to moisten in desire. He knew his torturous trek could easily be satisfied if he used his powers to reach the refrigerator, but drowsiness and fatigue protested against any movement that consumed too much energy. His sluggish pace was enough of an effort as it was.<p>

Slicing through the thick silence of the Cave, M'Gann and Superboy's voices preceded them long before they came within the speedster's view. They sat juxtaposed to each other at the kitchen counter, lightly conversing over bowls of cereal. Just before Wally set foot into the room, Connor, who had been slouched over his breakfast, perked up and turned toward his exhausted teammate. A quizzical expression invaded his visage, "Wally?"

With slow strides, he passed his teammates and continued to make his way to the fridge. His eyes never strayed from his destination, "The one and only."

"Good morning, Wally." M'Gann chimed in. With a slight flourish of her hands, her empty bowl levitated from the countertop and soared towards the sink for cleaning. "What are you doing here so early? You usually sleep in on weekends."

Manually discarding his soiled dishware, Connor turned from the sink to face the unresponsive boy. Bent at the hips, jean clad behind sticking out, his head rested against a cool shelf upholding varieties of beverages. Devastation was lucid in his response, "Someone drank all the chocolate milk."

"No they didn't," Sliding out of her seat, M'Gann carried the desired carton to him. "You walked right past it."

Withdrawing his head from the inner bowels of the food storage, he took the carton with a grateful smile, splash of freckles clustering in response to his upturned lips, "Thanks, sweetheart."

From the moment Wally entered the room, Connor sensed something unusual about his teammate. If his bloodshot eyes and apathetic pace were any indication, his guess was that he hadn't bothered with sleep overnight. Crossing his arms, Connor further examined his appearance as Wally seated himself where M'Gann had finished off her breakfast, "Late night?"

"That seems to be the question of the day," the speedster replies, coherency fighting through a prolonged yawn.

"Someone else is in the tower?"

"Roy and I talked around two or something in the Med Lab," snatching an orange from a fruit bowl set near the microwave, the speedster began to distractedly peel the skin off. "So, yeah, technically this morning." As his worn down nails dug to pry the outer layer of the fruit from the insides, he paused to pull the market sticker off and stuck it over a button on the microwave, concealing its function. "I'm sure he's gone by now, though."

"Oh…" fingering the collar of her cape with uncertainty, M'Gann's eyes darted towards Superboy. "Well, I'm glad you got to talk to him. It's not like anyone gets to see him anymore."

"Yeah," Connor spoke up, eyebrows knitting together. "Why did he come only to see you and not bother saying anything to the rest of the team?"

Pausing mid-bite, the speedster suddenly directed his gaze towards the pair. "Well, he showed up at a ridiculous hour, anyways."

Fingers curling around the edge of the countertop, the dark haired boy's jaw clenched to set his lips in a grim line. Noting her boyfriend's tense stance, Miss Martian grew wary of Wally's words. "But why go to all the trouble of making sure the rest of the team wouldn't be around?"

"He wanted me to—"

"Whoa! What are _you _doing up so early, K.F.? Last time I checked, today was Saturday." Entering the room with an expression teeming with mirth, Robin's dark shades seemed to flash in the light with laughter.

"Ha, ha," Wally mumbled as the Dark Knight's protégé hopped up to occupy the barstool next to him. Cramming a few orange wedges in his mouth, he allowed the fruit and his offended ego to be his excuse for not pursuing any further conversation with Robin. Looking back towards the heroic couple, he continued with his lingering explanation, "Like I was saying, before I was so _rudely _interrupted, Roy wanted me to analyze some blood samples."

"Blood samples?" Robin stirred in his seat and faced the Speedster full on. "Why, what's he going to do with that? Wait," the corners of his mask curved upwards as a sudden realization formed within his mind, "What are _you _going to do with that?"

Swallowing the remainder of the fruit, Wally's lips smeared into a smirk. "After I finish up with extracting the components from the ray gun last night's baddie tried to zap us with, I'll be able to identify one of the Shadows' top assassins!"

"What!"

"No way!"

"The Shadows?"

Satisfied at his teammate's disbelieving remarks, his cocky attitude inflated like a water balloon, eventually bursting with overconfidence. "That's right. And I'm not talkin' about just any Shadow's assassin. This is Cheshire we're dealing with."

"Cheshire!" M'Gann nearly levitated at this revelation, hair and cape rippling at her faltering grip on her powers. "Wally, if you're able to trace her origins, who knows what we'll discover about the Shadow's?"

"What is all the excitement about?"

The current occupants of the room, having been caught up in the excitement of the news, whipped towards the source of the voice with alarm. Toweling off his head, Kaldur breezed through the entryway with the discernable scent of sea salt. A habitual routine, it was guaranteed that he could be found practicing strokes in the ocean waves at the crack of dawn. And afterwards, an even safer bet to make would have found him in the kitchen immediately after his early morning swim to satisfy a deprived stomach.

Robin's keen eyes caught the scrupulous flex of their leader's gills, a telltale sign he was vexed with the current situation. As Kaldur rolled his towel up and draped it across his broad shoulders, he joined his friends around the kitchen counter.

"Wally has a lead to Cheshire's true identity."

Quirking an eyebrow, the Atlantean flicked a gaze towards the science prodigy. "Red Arrow has already disclosed her identity. If you can recall, he was able to identify her at the Summit. Her profile is already in the main—"

"No, no, no!" Wally interjects, now twisting in his swivel chair with defiance and excitement. "He meant her true identity, her lineage! We can find out where she's from and who her parents are and maybe… What?"

With every word Wally had divulged of this revelation, Kaldur's visage had contorted in increasing perplexity. Superboy's arms crossed even tighter, "Yeah, why are you looking at him like that?"

"Did Batman assign this project to you, Wally?"

Scoffing, the boy in question hopped out of his seat to size up his leader. "No."

"Then you would be going against League terms if you continued your research."

Face scrunching up in distaste, Wally's eyes hardened. "League terms? What, you don't want to find out who this assassin is? Not to mention, a Shadows assassin! This could lead to the infiltration of the organization!"

Kaldur returned the gaze, "I am merely looking out for the team, Wally. For you. You will be reprimanded severely if you are to be caught."

"Hellooo!" Wally exclaimed, throwing up his arms in a fit of exasperation. "_Fastest boy alive, _here! The only way I'll get caught is if you snitch on me!"

Behind him, M'Gann bristled at his outburst. "That's not really fair, Wally." He whirled around to face her, captivated by her compassionate gaze. "I'm sure Aqualad _wants _to know Cheshire's history as much as you do—" at this, Kaldur gave a curt nod— "but it would be dishonoring the code. When Huntress **(1) **violated the policy, she was banished from the League."

Wally opened his mouth to provide that the ex-League member had tried to _kill _a man, that the nature of the juxtaposed situations were two different extremes, but Robin beat him to the words.

"Batman can be really rough when he wants to be," he added with an undertone of discipline that spoke volumes of his experience.

"I… but… ugh! Fine!" Chucking the scraps of his breakfast into the nearest waste bin, Kid Flash reached for another fruit from the bowl and shoved it in his mouth. "I'll ask Batman if I can do it," his promise was nearly incoherent trough his indecent table manners, "but I'm just wasting time."

Kaldur, however, was not completely satisfied with this answer. "How did you obtain this lead to Cheshire's identity, anyhow?"

"Red Arrow," Robin provided while Wally continued to munch in his selfish, brooding silence. "He stopped by this morning with a blood sample."

Echoing down the vast hallways of the Cave, the zeta tube transporter announced Artemis's late arrival. M'Gann, perking up at a sudden excuse to back out of the tense conversation, caught Superboy by the arm and tugged him towards the main corridor. The clone followed with querulous protests but allowed his girlfriend to drag him along, anyways. In truth, he was also relieved to escape the crossfire of his teammate's little squabble.

Silence passed between the remaining teammates, each lost in thought. Robin turned towards the older boy and considered his pensive state, "Everything okay?" It was a dumb question, really. Mistake or not, Batman had revealed the entirety of what he knew of Artemis's background to his protégé, a history no other member of the Team knew of. Kaldur was cunning, however, and very good about drawing parallels even with a few missing puzzle pieces adding gaping holes to the overall picture.

The bright pigment of his eyes clashed with the younger boy's mask. "I am unsure. I sense that discovering Cheshire's true roots would… be inappropriate. It would be like asking Artemis of her past."

Robin froze, nearly tipping over in his chair at the weight of Kaldur's words. He quickly relaxed; however, as the realization dawned that the older teen was merely indicating Artemis's untrusting nature, not her actual heredity.

Watching the shadows of the exit swallow his leader whole, Robin slipped out of his chair and reluctantly followed. Sighing with the burden of the most recent events, he tapped into the holographic computer at his wrist and began to compose a message. He had a lot to explain to Batman.

* * *

><p><strong>( 1 ) <strong>A reference to _Justice League Unlimited. _Huntress, once a member of the Justice League, is booted out when attempting to murder a man who had murdered her parents when she was a child.

**Review if you're still hooked to this story! I would be very grateful, for it has been a while since I touched upon this plot. More is soon to come, promise! The next chapter is already written! (:**


End file.
